The Flame Falcons
by madmax2910
Summary: The galactic civil war is brewing. Unrest and dissent have increased across the Galactic Empire, offering plenty of work opportunities for a mercenary outfit like the Flame Falcons. Captain Flynn Rayson will have to pick his employers carefully, as stepping on the wrong foot or agreeing to the wrong deal may prove to be just as deadly as the business end of a lightsaber.
1. A simple Job

"Captain, welcome. Have a seat." Governor Jameson gestured to the seat across his desk. Flynn took the seat he was offered.  
"Governor. Your aide told me, you have a pirate problem you want my help in solving?"  
"Yes, exactly that. See, our planet lives off the asteroid belts in the system. Those pirates have been harrying our supply lines, stealing everything and sometimes everyone that isn't nailed down. We have been able to pinpoint their location, just a few parsecs away. We don't have warships of our own and the imperial navy has their hands full. I'm not quite sure whether their base is a station or planet based, but I want you to find and destroy it. Of course, you'll be paid handsomely."  
"Sounds like a great job for the Flame Falcons." Flynn replied. "How much are you offering?"  
"600.000 Imperial Credits. Half now, the other half on your return. Of course I'll be expecting proof of your success."  
"Those pirates sound like they'll be very well equipped. What kind of ships can we expect?"  
"Starfighters, maybe some old Y-Wings."  
"How many of them?"  
"My people counted about a dozen. Is that going to be a problem?"  
"Nothing we can't handle, the Falcons' nest may be old but she is tough and armed to the teeth. But a dozen starfighters, plus an unknown number of ground troops, you should be paying us more. 800.000 sounds like a more appropriate price."  
"Are you out of your mind captain? No way I'm paying that much for a simple pirates' nest. If I took that money to the fleet, they'd send a star destroyer in no time."  
"But that star destroyer still has to get here, you know how long that is going to take. And while your little bribe goes up the chain of command, those pirates will cause ever more damage and cost you money as well as reputation among your superiors."

Flynn smiled and let his words sink in. He had played this game more than the governor did, every bounty hunter and every mercenary worth his salt always tried to haggle for more money. The governor returned his smile, it was not the first time he was hiring external help. But that didn't surprise him, the Glactic Empire didn't put high priority on backwater worlds of the outer rim, like Siskeen. This offered plenty of work opportunities for mercenary outfits, providing the local government with extra firepower if needed.  
"Out of curiosity, what are you mining anyway?"  
"Metals and focusing crystals mostly. The kind of raw materials you need to keep a fleet like the Imperial Navy going. The Empire raised production targets last month again, for the fifth time this year already. Alright, since we are in a bit of a pinch, I'll pay your sevenhundred grand. On top of that, I'll pay you ten thousand extra for every ton of metals or crystals you bring back."  
That was quite a lot above market price and Flynn knew that. The governor had to want those materials back, badly.  
"Sounds good. Do you have coordinates for me?" The governor handed Flynn a datapad with coordinates on it, that led to a neighboring star system about 10 parsecs away. Good enough to plot a course. He copied the coordinates to his commlink before handing the pad back to the governor.  
"Time for me to get going then. You'll be hearing from us as soon as your pirates are dealt with. The payment please?"  
"My aide will have your payment ready. Cash, as always."  
Flynn smiled. Only amateurs accepted digital payments, that could be traced to a bank account. He knew better than to entrust the companys' financial assets to the InterGalactic Banking Clans. The governor clearly knew what he was doing.  
"Nice doing business with you, governor Johnson. I'll report back as soon as the pirates are dealt with. Have a good day."  
"You too, captain."

Outside the office, the governors' aide handed Flynn a suitcase, which contained 400.000 imperial credits, lain out neatly in 1000 credit platinum pieces. When he left the building, Lieutenant Socrates Antilles was already waiting for him. Platoon leader and second in command, Antilles had been with the company ever since he got disowned by his noble family on Alderaan. Even though, nobody who valued their health called the house Antilles "noble" in his presence. Flynn didn't know why his second in command got disowned by his family and where his grudge against them came from, but the man was a reliable leader and marksman. Which was plenty to satisfy the captain, to the point he didn't ask further questions.  
He looked at the suitcase Flynn was carrying. "We got a contract captain?"  
"Yes indeed. We're back to hunting pirates. Get everyone ready to move out, time for all of us to earn our paychecks."  
Antilles took out his comlink and started calling the other Lieutenants, who in turn gathered all their platoons. The mercenaries departed Siskeen as soon as everyone was present.

The corellian CR-90 corvette "Falcons' Nest" that the company used as a mobile home and headquarter was an old ship, one of the first of its' kind. Built in the last stages of the clone wars, Flynn had commandeered it on a mission for the republic and kept as spoils of war. Together with the chief engineer and mechanic Jamie, he had repurposed a lot of unused passenger space into medical facilities, armories and training grounds to be used by the company as they moved from contract to contract. Over the years, they had upgraded weaponry, shields and armor to the best they could afford and maintain, making the ship a threat even to more advanced modern vessels. Flynn moved onto the bridge.  
"Set course to these coordinates." He said and handed his comlink to to the helmsman. "And get the ship ready for battle, we are about to hit pirates. Man the point defense turrets. First and Second Platoon, gear up for boarding. We deal with the ships first, then assault their station."  
"Ready to jump into hyperspace captain. On your command."  
"Go."

Stars turned into stripes as the Falcons' Nest jumped into faster than light speed. When the ship returned to realspace, it was very close to the coordinates that the governor had given Flynn. "Anything on Sensors?" He asked Antonov, who manned the station.  
"Nothing that stands out."  
"Now if I had a dozen starfighters, where would I hide them?" he muttered more to himself than to the bridge crew.  
"In the asteroid belt maybe?" the sensor operator replied.  
"Probably. The only place where you can build a station and stay semi-unnoticed. Alright, how many asteroids are big enough to house a dozen starfighters on top of some quarters, hangars and other support facilities?"  
Antonov checked over his display again, then diplayed a map of the star system on the main screen. Three spots were highlighted. "I'd recon those three are about big enough to house what you need for a decent pirate base. You could probably even spare a few meters of rock for extra natural armor. "Our turbolasers won't penetrate multiple meters of asteroid, if the base really is inside." Flynn said, thinking on a plan. Maybe we can depressurize them once inside and fight with the advantage of having vacuum sealed armor. Natural choke point in the hangar, very defensible. The ship won't offer any support after our initial breach." He scratched his beard, trying to come up with a good plan. "Run more scans, if they don't launch their fighters at us take some potshots on the asteroids."  
Then, an idea sprang into his head. He called the armory. "This is the captain. Issue flight gear and Vacuum sealed armor to first and second platoon. We're doing a mando drop on them."

A mando drop was a tactic developed by the mandalorians and deployed by clone commandos during the war. They used their small, maneuverable landing craft to get close to the hulls of capital ships and stations, then force their way inside with the use of cutting equipment and explosives. While battle droids were not affected by rapid decompression, it was a very devastating tactic when used against ships with organic crews. However, it was extremely risky for the troops attempting it as they and their craft were sitting ducks for hostile fighters and there was no easy way out should the tide of battle turn against the boarders.  
"Clear out the starboard cargo bay and make sure everyone is ready to go. Get ready folks." Flynn turned back to the bridge crew. "Set course for the first marked asteroid. Battle Stations!"  
"Contact! Twelve new signatures on display, I think we got them captain!" Antonov said suddenly.  
"Seems like you were right about the Asteroids. What are we dealing with?"  
"Eight X-Wing class Starfighters, four Y-Wings."  
"All batteries get ready to fire! Pilot, take us on a strafe past the asteroid and show our port side. Focus fire on the Y-Wings."  
"Hostiles are now in range. Your orders captain?"  
"All guns fire at will. Take those Y-wings down. Turn the ship around the x-axis, 80 degrees to starbord. Then bring us below the station. And find their bloody hangar bay."  
The ships laser turrets unleashed a volley of shots, using weaker but more numerous attacks. While those rounds would never even scratch the paint on a heavy freighter or another corvette, they did plenty of damage to fighters. Or the few ones that hit home at least. The pirates were skilled pilotes, dodging and barreling between streams of laser fire. Only a single Y-Wing was hit by a stray round, losing his starbord engine and swirled into a nearby asteroid.  
By exploiting the natural cover granted by the asteroid field and the greater maneuverability of their smaller ships, two pirates slipped into the dead angle of the Falcon's Nest and launched their proton torpedoes.  
"Torpedoes inbound, from behind. How the hell did they get there?"  
"Turn the ship and get us up. Full throttle on the sublight drive. Get those two out of our dead angle."  
Flynn could feel the ship accelerate as the artificial gravity pulled him into his seat.  
"Turret 5 and 6, two hostile in our rear. Take them down."

The sudden acceleration caught the pirates by surprise and the torpedoes only narrowly missed. Suddenly finding themselves in the sight of two turrets, they tried to dive away with another barrel roll. This time, their piloting was no match for the gunners marksmanship.  
"Three down." Antonov informed Flynn. "Two Ys and an X dealt with. Nine hostiles remaining."  
"150 degree turn to port. These Y-Wings need to be dealth with ASAP. Have we found the hangar bay on that asteroid?"  
"Yes. It is below the station, if we take the star for reference."  
"Good. Ready the ship for our mando drop. Starbord cargo bay ready on my mark."  
"First and second platoon report ready on the drop."  
"Good. Set us up on the bay run. Turrets, take out those fighters!"  
When he said that, three X-Wings appared on starboard setting up for a strafing run. Flynn felt the ship shaking when their concentrated fire hit their shields. The turrets responded in kind, destroying one and severely damaging a second, which limped away and barely made it to the stations hangar.  
"We can't deploy as long as these fighters are out there! Gunners, focus!"  
"Torpedoes! Torpedoes from below!"  
"How the fark did they get there? Brace for impact!"  
This time, the ship shook a lot harder. He could feel the explosions as the torpedoes hit their underbelly.  
"Damage report!"  
"Shields down to 60% from a hit in the energy supply. Hyperdrive offline. Why the hell do pirates have military torpedoes?"  
"Dammned if I know! Shutdown the hyperdrive completely and use the extra power for the guns!"  
Streams of laser fire erupted from the ship. With the extra power, the turrets were able to fire much faster than before. When they lost another ship, the pirate fighters retreated back into the station performing an emergency redock.  
"Get us to that Hangar!" Flynn shouted. The pirates were working very quickly and when the hangar door came into view, there were already two massive doors sliding shut.  
"Weapons to maximum, stop those doors! We'll never get them out if they close!"

Three well aimed shots from the starboard turrets hit into the rails which the doors were moving in, which stopped them immediately. Flynn was convinced that there must be a nasty sound of metal grinding on metal inside the station.  
"Good shooting. Now aim for their hangar shield and take it down. Open the starboard cargo bay and get the troops out."  
Another volley from the Falcon's nest and the blue glow of a force field, shielding the hangar against the vacuum of space, was gone. From his display, the captain could see personnel and supplies being sucked out into space by rapid decompression. As the mercenaries made their jump across the gap between the ship and the enemy station, he ordered the starboard turrets to provide covering fire. The pirates were obviously not expecting an attack like the this and were unable to reinforce quickly enough to stop their assault.

Lieutenant Socrates Antilles felt the rush of combat in his veins, as he flew out from the cargo bay and into the pirate station, with his own and second platoon in tow. Fifty mercenaries equipped with Jetpacks and full body armor were a sizable force and he always loved seeing his men in action. He focused on the opening in the pirate hangar doors and was the first one to land in the hangar. Thankfully, the stations own artificial gravity still worked. The hangar itself was a mess, bodies, crates and other supplies scattered everywhere. The pirates had not been able to reinitiate the atmospheric shield and he was not sure how many of them could be equipped to fight in vacuum. The mercenaries landed and found two larger doors leading deeper into the station, which of course were closed. He saw the second Lieutenant, Cezary Muggia, land with his men and move to one of the doors.  
"Set breaching charges and get those doors open." He nodded to his fellow Lieutenant, as the squad leaders shouted orders into their helmet comms and men moved around, placing charges. When he got two thumbsup from either doors, he counted.  
"Breach in 5... 4... 3... 2... 1... GO GO GO!"

The doors blew inward, but the debris and people he expected to fly out from rapid decompression didn't come. He peeked around the corner into the corridor and saw – nothing. The pirates must have retreated deeper into the station, while they either equipped space suits or tried to get some atmospheric shielding up again. Antilles moved his men in and in his peripheral vision he saw Muggia do the same, while they slowly advanced down the hallway. The atmospheric readings on his armor updated at the same time he heard the captain again. "Falcons' nest to everyone, be advised: The pirates have restarted their atmospheric shielding. Expect resistance to start any moment."  
As if on cue, a door to his right opened and a young man clad into a light blue shirt, together with light gray trousers, a black combat vest and a helmet stepped into his view. Without hesitation, the mercenary raised his rifle and put a single round into the mans head, while simultaneously diving for cover. A mixture of men and women in identical uniforms mixed in with orange pilot suits now filed into the corridor, forcing the mercenaries into cover by unloading a hail of blaster shots on them. The company responded in kind and a real firefight erupted very quickly. "Throw a detonator! Smoke'em out!" He yelled into his helmet and leaned out, laying down suppressing fire with his blaser rifle. He could see two thermal detonators flying over his head and rolling into the enemy positions, where they blew up sending fire, smoke and shrapnel everywhere.  
"Keep moving. We almost have them. Keep the pressure on, don't let them rally and regroup."  
Over the noise of combat, Antilles could even hear the enemy battlecry. "For the Alliance! We will not yield! Push them back!"

And then, the pirates started their counterattack. Suddenly the Flame Falcons were the ones on the back foot. With a discipline and order that was definitely unusual for pirates, they started pushing back. Antilles could not help the feeling that they were poking a hornets' nest with their assault, but he decided to worry about this later. "Seal your helmets! Deploy incendiaries!"  
With this order, every Falcon went back into vacuum mode as three mercenaries threw red cylinders at their opposition. These weapons sprayed a fluid derived from speeder fuel at their surrounding, very sticky and very combustible. As it didn't seem to be any immediate danger, the pirates paid them no mind. Antilles then held his left arm out and sent out a beam of fire from his wrist mounted miniature flamethrower. A wall of fire rolled into the corridor, sucking up valuable oxygen and incinerating many pirates. After this attack, many pirates were left dead and dying. If there were any survivors, they were nowhere to be seen.

Weapons at the ready, Antilles and his men advanced further into the station. It seemed like nobody was left alive, an eerie silence governed the place. When he radioed the second platoon, he got the same answer. Nobody left after initial contact, they too had used incendiary grenades to hold off a pirate counterattack. They searched the station again and found a mess hall, living quarters and an extended storage full of crates and cargo that must have been stolen from the imperial mining world. "Antilles to the captain. The station is ours."  
"Great work Lieutenant. I'm moving the ship in to unload the remainders of the company to assist in the salvaging effort. Return aboard for R&R as well as an after action report."

Rest and recovery sounded great and when he returned into the hangar with his platoon, he found the Falcons' Nest docked to the outer door, having extended a tunnel from its' starboard cargo bay to aid in what would require a great deal of work.

Flynn awaited his second in command in the hangar of the pirate station, together with all the men who remained aboard the Falcons' Nest during the battle. The third and fourth platoon were already moving in with tools and repulsor carriers to salvage and remove anything of value, while others were setting explosive charges to destroy the station as soon as they were done with it.


	2. Unintended consequences

**Chapter 2  
** When the Falcons' Nest undocked from the station, Flynn was already in the armory together with quartermaster Jones.  
"So, what did we get?"  
"A few old helmets, that aren't really up to snuff. Never seen that design before if I'm honest, could be something the separatists used in the clone wars."  
"No, the Separatists relied mostly on droids with only few regular officers in between. They had better armor than this. But that was almost twenty years ago. What else?"  
"Some blaster rifles and pistols, mostly stuff you could buy on the black market on Tatooine or Hutta. Not worth our while carrying it there to sell it, if you ask me. They were also nice enough to leave us with some encrypted data pads."  
"Kinda disappointing. Are the men still loading the pirates' loot?"  
"Yes, our port cargo bay is going to be completely full until we return to Siskeen. Some space is still available in the starboard bay."  
"I'll talk to Jamie then, maybe we find something to fill it with. What were our casualties?"  
"Three dead, eight more wounded. Doc said they should be up again in few days She should be in the engine room, that hit to our hyperdrive was really bad."  
"I'll be on my way then."

Flynn made his way into the ships' engine room. Two men worked on the generator, with a third silhouette visible. He marched over and aw a woman, her upper body stuck under some kind of machinery. He walked up to her and gently tapped her knee.  
"Jamie. Got a moment."  
"Hang on, cap'n" came a muffled response. She had her torso resting on a rolling board or similar contraption, as she moved her body downwards so she could see the mercenary and talk to him. He offered a hand, which she gladly took and pulled her to her feet.  
"So, what can I do for you?"  
"I'm just here because I want to know about hyperdrive and shields, how long till they are running again?"  
"Hm, I'd say maybe twenty hours. Less if I can pull any useful parts from the pirates' remaining starfighters."  
"Anything of value in them? I can't imagine the empire would be interested in 'slightly used' X- or Y-Wing parts. In fact, I haven't seen those craft since the end of the clone wars."  
"No, they don't buy these things. But I have seen a buyer last time we went to Nar Shadaa, scooping up pretty much anything that can fly. They may be interested in those starfighters, or at least as many parts as we can carry."  
"Sounds good. Since it hasn't come up before, how computer savvy are you?"  
She gave him an are-you-kidding-me look. "Being computer savvy is a job requirement for a mechanic these days. If it talks in ones and zeroes, I can make it do my bidding. Why are you asking?"  
"The pirates left us with some encrypted data pads that I want you to crack. Maybe we'll find something else that we can sell off."  
"Sure, just leave 'em here and I'll look at it as soon as I have our Old Lady patched up again. What were they shooting at us out there?"  
"Photon Torpedoes."  
"Torpedoes?" She almost grasped. "Where in all the stars did they get those? That kind of hardware doesn't get sold on the streets of Hutta, and even if, it is clearly outside the price range some pirate scum can afford."  
"I was thinking about that." Flynn replied. "Maybe they are a lot richer than I thought they would be, or they have a rich patron who has a grudge with the empire and believes that funding pirates is the best way to settle it. Either way, this little operation is shut down now. While we are at it, did you go to the range last night and train with your pistol?"  
"Uhm, yes. Yes I did." Jamie didn't look him in the eyes when she said that.  
"Be honest with me."  
She sighed. "Alright, I didn't. Are you happy now? Why do you want me to waste my time?"  
"Because" he replied "you never know when you might need that skill. You are chief engineer of my company, one of the most gifted mechanics I've ever met. And yet here you are, calling yourself a mercenary barely knowing which end of a blaster to point at the bad guy." Even though they've had this conversation before, she was still uncomfortable. With her hands behind her back, she had her eyes clearly fixed at his feet. Her hair was short, brown and in a functional pony tail so it would not get in front of her eyes. She was shorter than most of the company and her lean figure meant she could crawl into the tight spaces around the ship. Together with an unparalleled gift for tools and spaceships, she was the perfect stellar mechanic.  
And her stubborn refusal about learning how to shoot was what Flynn tried to get out of her now.  
"Training area, as soon as your shift ends. I'll be waiting for you Jamie, so don't be late. You WILL learn to shoot."  
She sighed, but gave in. "Fine. I guess the night shift can finish the hyperdrive repairs."  
"See you at the range then. And don't worry, it's easier than it looks."

Flynn departed with a smile and left his chief engineer, who looked saddened by the perspective of practicing her marksmanship over finishing the hyperdrive. He headed into the cargo bay, where where quartermaster Jones was directing heavy crates moved in and stacked neatly.  
"Is that the crates the governor wants delivered?" Flynn asked.  
"Yes, that's them. Six in total, four of them metals and two with focusing crystals in a very good quality. I think Jamie would kill for getting her hands on those and tinkering with the Old Ladies' teeth."  
"Don't tell her then. Remember, our reputation is almost as important as our weaponry. We can't afford an imperial governor with a grudge because he finds out we kept a crate of his focusing crystals."  
"Will do. You know she'll be pissed if she finds out about it?"  
"Send her my way then, I'll handle it."  
"Alright captain. Back to loading our cargo then. We should be ready here in one, maybe two hours. As soon as the night shift starts I think we'll be ready to go."

Flynn gave his quartermaster an approving nod, then made his way into the infirmary. Doctor Frederick Gunther was no longer operating himself but rather directing personnel doing minor tasks like applying bandages. Seven mercenaries were wounded, he could see two of them floating in bacta tanks in the back of the station. The others were just lying in beds, letting the medical staff do their thing and enduring what was happening.  
"Captain! I was expecting you. Do you want to know the medical state of the company?"  
"Certainly."  
"Well we lost three in the assault. Every help was too late for them, they took Blaster shots straight in the head. Two are still in the tank, one is already discharged. Body armor prevented most serious injuries, everyone should be back on their feet by the time we reach Siskeen again."  
"Well, keep going. Any new hires who need a talk?"  
"Nothing really, first platoon got reinforced a bit. But the new guys held up just fine."  
"Expected him to, if you grow up on the streets of Hutta a little firefights' not going to break you."  
Especially people from civilian backgrounds with little to no combat experience could always have it a bit rough on their first deployment into an actual fight. The platoon and squad leaders did what they could to ease the new recruits in, but when the first real shots were fired, some people just broke.  
"Well, keep it up doc. If anything comes up, you know where to find me."

Flynn returned to the bridge. "Set course back to Siskeen. We have payment to collect. I want us out of this system as soon as the hyperdrive comes back online."  
The ships' internal clock gave the signal to switch into the night shift, just a few minutes later.  
He made his way down into the training range, where a slightly less enthusiastic chief engineer was waiting for him.  
"Jamie. Good to see you. Let's get started, shall we?"  
"I hate you captain."  
"I know, you'll still learn to shoot. Take this."  
He handed her a training blaster the company used. Then he took his comlink.  
"Range 2, ready for live fire training. Basic marksmanship. WOW!" He pushed her hand away.  
"First rule of handling a blaster: Do not point at at anything you are not intending to shoot."

Flynn realized, he'd have to start training her from scratch. Complete civilian, she only ever saw a weapon on Holonet movies. But he knew what he was getting into after hiring Jamie on the company's last trip to Coruscant, or Imperial Center as it was known now.  
"Alright, take a stance. Feet apart, shoulder wide. Both hands on your weapon. Breathe, focus, fire. Range two, target ready!"  
The voice programmed computer controlling the range reacted immediately and a roughly humanoid silhouette raised out of the ground. Flynn patted his chief engineer on the shoulder. "Whenever you're ready."  
Jamie entered the stance the captain had described to her, took aim, and fired.  
"WOW! That thing has one hell of a recoil."  
Her shot had hit the target straight in the center.  
"It does, but you'll get used to it. Shoot again." She took another shot, this one off target. He adjusted her stance ever so slightly. "Again. I want you to keep practicing until those" - he pointed to two crates of ammunition deposited on the range, to the right of them - "are empty. Or until you can hit every stationary target on the first shot. Tomorrow, we progress to moving targets."

Jamie kept practicing under Flynn's direction and she was smart enough to figure it out using only one crate of ammunition.

The next morning, or rather after the night shift, he returned to the bridge after a breakfast of just basic rations. Satisfying, but tasteless. Not the best food and he knew that he needed to restock the food lockers as soon as they got back to a more civilized area of the galaxy. Nothing destroyed morale faster than bad food, as he knew from his own experience.  
He reached the bridge together with Jamie.  
"Captain! I just wanted to talk to you. Hyperdrive and shields are back up to full capacity."  
"Good. Let's go." He took his seat on the bridge, while the chief engineer made her way to the engine room.  
"This is the captain. All hands, prepare for jump to lightspeed." The internal communication system was connected to all major and minor stations. To the bridge crew Flynn said this: "Course to Siskeen, jump when ready."  
"All stations, ready for jump." The helmsman replied.  
"Jump." The stars outside turned into stripes as the Falcon's Nest jumped to hyperspace. A day later, the ship returned to realspace above Siskeen.  
"Well, here we are." Flynn said. "Radio the imperial governor." Comms did as he asked, and he was talking to to governor Jameson quickly.  
"This is Imperial governor Jameson. You have a delivery for me I assume?"  
"That I do sir and rest assured, the pirates won't bother you again. We were able to recover six crates worth of materials they must have stolen from your mines and processing plans."  
Flynn was met with about ten seconds of silence. "That is only a third of the materials that went missing. Any idea where the remainders ended up?"  
"I think the pirates already sold your materials. I can look into who the buyers were, for a price."

"No, not necessary. If you can assure me those pirates won't be a problem again and have some evidence to back it up, then the second half of your payment is waiting for you in my office."  
"I'm on my way then. Tell your people to bring the money for your crates as well."  
"Great. I'll see you on the ground."

Around two hours later, Flynn sat in the governor's office.  
"So tell me, how did you deal with the pirates?  
"Their starfighters gave us us a good run for our money, but in the end they were no match for our corvette. We took half of them down, before they performed an emergency landing. We were able to overrun the hangar before they closed it and used decompression to our advantage."  
He laid out in detail how the falcons had taken the station, even showed the governor some holos from the inside.  
"And that's the end of that story. Now, would you kindly hand over my payment as we agreed?"  
"Certainly." The governor called his aide "Marcus, bring Mr Rayson's payment and sixtythousand extra." He turned back to the mercenary. "It was nice doing business with you. Happy hunting."

"Good luck with the mines, governor." Flynn said, as the aide entered and handed him two suitcases. "I sincerely hope you meet that imperial production target because I like doing business with you too."  
He left the governor's office and returned aboard the Falcon's Nest, where he deposited the second half of their payment into the ship's vault.

"Set course for Tatooine" Flynn ordered. "And we should stop on Hutta, we need supplies and some new hands. Make all arrangements to have the dead buried on the way. It looks like we'll have some time on our hands before we reach Hutta. I want everyone to hit the range at least once before we get there."  
The next morning, Jamie woke him up by knocking on his cabin door. "Captain! I gotta talk to you, it's urgent! There's something I need to show you."  
"'Kay, gimme a minute or so." Flynn replied with a groggy voice. He used some of his water rations to sprinkle cold liquid on his face and wake up, before he put on his uniform and opened the door. "What do you have for me?"  
"Do you remember those datapads you gave me, after we left Siskeen?  
"I do. Did you crack them?"  
She beamed a smile at him. "Indeed I did, but I fear you won't like what I found. We may have a real problem on our hands."  
"Well, shoot then. No need to beat around the bush."  
"Alright, so the pads we found were a crew and a cargo manifesto. The kind of documentation you need if you move stuff from place to place and don't want the imperials nosing through your cargo bay."  
"Interesting. Where were they going? I'd expect Hutta or Tatooine, somewhere the Empire doesn't grip too tightly and a few tons of 'questionable' cargo don't attract any attention."  
"So would I, but our expectations were subverted. No, their cargo went straight towards a core world: Alderaan."  
"Alderaan? What do they want with military grade alloys and turbolaser parts?"  
"Lost me on that one captain, but it seems they had connections to one of the noble houses: House Organa, with a liaison present at the station during our attack. A young noble by the name of Atilius Jovian Organa. Lieutenant Antilles is asking around if anyone can confirm his death, but it isn't looking good."  
"Well damn it. If the Organas find out we killed one of theirs, we are in for a world of hurt any time we fly within fifty parsecs of Alderaan. they even have enough money and reach on the imperial senate to cause us pain anywhere in the empire."  
"Can't we lay low in Hutt space?"  
"Working for the Hutts is nowhere near as profitable as working for the Empire. Besides, no Hutt ever hires a full company like ours. One, maybe two mercs, sure. Occasionally the Hutts hire an entire squad of four or five for security on whatever operation they are running. But they simply don't need a full merc company because no pirate that has any sense ever lays a hand on Hutt stuff."

Flynn sighed and gestured for Jamie to follow him to the bridge, where he ordered the course to be changed to Nar Shaddaa.  
"For now we might be fine, eventually we'll have to deal with the Organas' grudge against us. We have to resupply and recruit a bit." he said to his chief engineer. "Thanks for bringing this to my attention."  
With that, she returned to her station in the engine room.


End file.
